Marketing Yourself Like Chocolate
Every season, you will find a new holiday-relevant type of chocolate bar available for sale. In February, the bite-sized chocolate pieces are molded into the shape of a heart and covered in…
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Business
36 archived articles from the Success by Rx blog.
Dear Jenae — How do you maintain balance in your private life when swamped with work?
How do you balance your private life and household duties with work? There are up and down seasons, what do you do when there is a surge in incoming work that you don’t want to turn down?…
Dear Jenae — What inexpensive and easy customer relationship management tool do you recommend?
“CRM tools – can you recommend any that are easy to use and not too expensive? I am looking for something to help me with marketing to new clients and scheduling for chasing up new leads…
Will new California law change your freelance translation work? Maybe.
If you work as a freelance translator or interpreter in the state of California, chances are good that you are familiar with the recently-passed Assembly Bill No. 5 (AB5) regarding…
Dear Jenae — How do you remain professional in a disagreement with your client and when do I skip signing that NDA?
Q: How do you remain professional in a disagreement with your client and when do I skip signing that NDA? Hi Jenae, I’m very grateful for this opportunity to ask you about our profession.…
Learn the potential perils – and possibilities – of business diversification
Is it time to diversify your business? You may be considering expanding what services you offer, but making that change is a serious commitment. Let Jenae Spry, founder of Success by Rx,…
Help! I was asked to discount my rate and I need the work. What do I do?
Q: Could you please give some advice on how to deal with the pressure to lower rates? This is an issue that I have been faced with just recently. An agency with whom I was working regularly…
Breakup emails that land clients
Want an unconventional way to bring in clients? Try saying goodbye … and watch some of your potential clients turn into actual clients. If you have been talking to a client who suddenly…
Competitor or Colleague?
If you’re like most translators, you spend a lot of time alone. You need to be alone to concentrate, but then there’s the other isolating factor of the business. It’s generally freelance…
Maybe You Don’t Need That Degree and Certification
What if you don’t need a fancy degree and certification to be an excellent translator or interpreter? It strikes those of us in the language professionals community as shocking – even…
How to Bring in Clients with Effective Blog Posts: An Interview with Marco Díaz
When it comes to blogging, we hear the same things all the time. “You really should be writing blogs.” “You know blogs are a proven way to boost your SEO ranking.” “The best blogs provide…
All-Consuming Projects: Four Strategies to Avoid Them and How to Succeed When They Take Over
What’s the opposite of the dreaded work slow-down that all freelancers fear? The All-Consuming Project. In capital letters. Because it takes over your life somehow. When you’re trying to…
Turning to the phone when email falls short – and how to make email more effective
As translators, we’re comfortable with written words, but that doesn’t mean that we have to rely exclusively on email to communicate with clients. A phone call can sometimes be a more…
Why You Need a Style Guide (and a Sample One to Get You Started!)
What’s a style guide? Style guides, in the most general terms, govern the written content that a brand produces. These documents give guidelines for how written materials should be written,…
Use These Three Techniques to Make Email More Efficient
Email is the double-edged sword of the business world. It allows communication with anyone at any time. That’s also the problem. We can send and receive emails 24 hours a day, 7 days a…
The Power of Networking via Social Media
I’ve been to various translator get-togethers over the past few years, some organized by translator associations, some via social media. The surprising thing is that many translators out…
Setting Attainable Goals to Achieve Work-Life Balance
The freedom of freelancing may be what attracted you to freelance work from the beginning. But are you so busy getting each project done and thinking about the next task at hand that you…
Batching Tasks to Increase Efficiency
We’ve all been there – an email comes in and you think to yourself, “I’ll just answer this real quick.” The next thing you know, you’re reviewing PDFs of invoices from last month because…
How to Bring in Clients with Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing can be your secret weapon for gaining new clients. But first, let’s define the term and see how it differs from outbound marketing. Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing In the…
Dos and Don’ts of Cold and Warm Emailing
You’ve likely heard the terms cold emails and warm emails. They can help you attract new clients and build your reputation within your niche in the translation industry. But what are they?…
Meet Melissa Kamenjarin, Success by Rx’s New Copywriter
As the new copywriter for Success by Rx, I’m excited to introduce myself to you. My name is Melissa Kamenjarin, and I am a Spanish/English translator, writer, editor and proofreader…
Looking for an affordable worldwide phone? It’s here.
If you’re a translator or interpreter who travels frequently, I might have some good news for you!I recently returned from a trip to Hong Kong and Thailand, which was my first time anywhere…
Dear translator/linguist/resource…It’s not personal – it’s just business
We’ve all gotten those impersonal e-mails from agencies and companies starting with “dear translator,” “linguist,” the dreaded “resource” or some other generalized category. I know many…
8 Reasons Why I “Work from Home” in an Office
In 2008, I left my one and only true professional office job to pursue my freelance business full time, and I swore to myself that I would NEVER EVER work in an office again. I was now…
3 Reasons Why Introverts Are Better at Sales
The other day I was talking to a friend of mine who owns an internet marketing company and manages their sales team. He mused that he and most of his entire sales team were all introverts.…
17 Last-Minute Tax-Saving Tips for Freelance Translators & Interpreters
It’s almost tax day and if you hate numbers or organization is not your strong suit, you’re probably not looking forward to it. Here are some last-minute things you can think about to get…
Scope Creep: Dealing with Small…and Not-So-Small Changes
Ever been in this situation? I started a proofreading job only to realize the translation is a disaster. I agreed to translate a file based on a sample, but the rest of the sample includes…
The One Crucial Thing You’re Forgetting When Handling Mistakes
We are all people, and mistakes happen. Sometimes we, as translators or interpreters, are the ones at fault. Perhaps we didn’t catch a typo or mixed up a deadline. Or perhaps there was a…
Dealing with Low-ballers
Rates are a very controversial issue in our industry and the issue of low-ballers is even more controversial. In fact, it’s kind of a hard concept to pinpoint. One freelancer might be…
How to Unleash the Entrepreneur Within
As freelancers, we are translators and/or interpreters first, and many of us fall into being a business owner for no other reason than the fact that our industry is generally set up in…
Need More Work? It’s Not Them, It’s You…<br>and That’s the Best News You’ve Heard All Day
If you don’t have work, the most likely reason is not them, it’s you. Before you start raging at me through your computer, keep reading. That’s actually good news…no…it’s GREAT news. Think…
Are You Missing Out Due to Fear of Missing Out?
You’ve probably heard of FOMO before but if you haven’t, it stands for “fear of missing out” and this disease runs rampant in our age of instant gratification and technology. You probably…
Impressive Time Management: The Time Diet
Do you often feel like your business is running you instead of the other way around? Do you wonder why you constantly feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day? This is your chance to…
5 Winning Strategies for Getting Work
Whether you are looking for more work or just different work, the following 5 strategies are great ways to diversify your client base or take the plunge into becoming a full-time freelance…
56th ATA Conference: Should I Go?
In the past week alone, three of my freelancer clients have asked me this question since the rates go up again on October 16. Let me start by giving you every translator’s favorite…
How Much Am I Worth?
This might sound like a really complex question and, in some ways, it is. On the other hand, it can be boiled down to one really simple statement: You’re worth whatever someone will pay…
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